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Irrigation in the Heart of the Sahara

by: Images and animation by Robert Simmon, based on data aqcuired by the

Publication date: 3/2/2002

Topics: What -- Earth, What -- Landsat 7, Where -- Kenya, Where -- Tanzania, Where -- Egypt, Where -- Sudan, Where -- Libya, Where -- Chad, Where -- Tunisia, Where -- Morocco, Where -- Algeria, Where -- United States of America

Although it is now the largest desert on Earth, during the last ice age the Sahara was a savannah with a climate similar to that of present-day Kenya and Tanzania. The annual rainfall was much greater than it is now, creating many rivers and lakes that are now hidden under shifting sands or exposed as barren salt flats. Over several hundred thousand years the rains also filled a series of vast underground aquifers. Modern African nations are now mining this